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Obama's pick for defence job irks pro-Israel hawks

Analysis Nick O'malley

BY THE time the President formally introduced Chuck Hagel as his pick for defence secretary on Monday in Washington, the former Republican senator's enemies on the right had been busy for weeks traducing him as an anti-Semite and an appeaser.

The public campaign against his appointment has already turned mean and the White House is prepared for combative Senate confirmation hearings.

At first glance Hagel has perfect Republican pedigree. As a young man he volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War, where he led a rifle squad and was twice wounded. In Monday's press conference Obama deliberately emphasised this, telling reporters Hagel would be the first former enlisted man - and the first Vietnam veteran - to serve as secretary for defence.

''Chuck knows that war is not an abstraction. He understands that sending young Americans to fight and bleed in the dirt and mud, that's something we only do when it's absolutely necessary,'' Obama said.

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After the war Hagel worked on the election campaign for Ronald Reagan, and for Veterans Affairs, before making millions in the private sector. He returned to Washington to serve two terms as a senator from 1996. He now serves on the President's intelligence advisory board and on the secretary of defence's policy board.

It was as a Republican on Capitol Hill that Hagel first offended the neo-conservatives who now lead the charge against him. Though he originally supported the invasion of Iraq, he soon changed his views and in 2006 and 2007 spoke out against the war in general, the surge in particular, and broadly against George W. Bush's foreign policy.

More contentiously though, Hagel challenged the dominant Republican view on America's relationship with Israel, declaring in a 2008 interview, ''Let me clear something up here … I'm a United States senator. I'm not an Israeli senator. I'm a United States senator. I support Israel. But my first interest is, I take an oath of office to the constitution of the United States. Not to a president, not to a party, not to Israel.''

The statement was an affront to many, especially in the Republican Party where unwavering support for Israel is the norm, but it was other comments in that interview that have been used to justify the argument that he is anti-Semitic. ''The political reality is that … the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,'' Hagel said. His use of the term ''Jewish'' rather than ''Israel lobby'' has not been forgiven in some quarters.

On Monday in an interview with a home-town paper, Nebraska's Journal Star, Hagel denied being anti-Israel, let alone anti-Semitic, saying he had been unable to defend his record while the President was considering his appointment.

During his silence of past weeks, the Weekly Standard, the neo-conservative journal edited by William Kristol, ramped up its campaign against him. One story quoted an anonymous Republican aide as saying, ''Send us Hagel and we will make sure every American knows he is an anti-Semite.''

Since then the Weekly Standard has listed every instance in which Hagel's public comments have strayed from hardline support of Israel.

The Emergency Committee for Israel - on whose board Kristol serves - has launched a website, chuckhagel.com, to further the campaign. The website uses much of the material gathered by the Weekly Standard, and also accuses Hagel of being soft on Iran.

And there is the rub. Despite America's exhausting engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, the neo-conservative establishment remains hawkish. It might not like Hagel, but what appals it is the thought of Obama securing an ally at the top of the defence administration who may be less enthusiastic than they are about the use of military force against Iran.

Hagel, as a war veteran and former Republican senator, will be a hard man to cast as a simpering liberal in an ensuing public debate.

So far the good money in Washington is on the fight being bloody, but the President getting his way.